Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Trophy Wife 1.01 Review: Life is Messy

This is me, right here, telling
any of you that have yet to watch tonight’s series premiere of Trophy Wife, and wish to do so without
being spoiled, please exit this screen now. I will be reviewing this episode,
and there are no guarantees that there won’t be spoilers ahead. I repeat, THERE MAY BE SPOILERS! You’ve been
warned.

So, the episode began with a
voiceover and flashback to when Malin Akerman’s Kate met Bradley Whitford’s Pete,
and then jumped back to the present, one year later where they’re married, and
she’s stepmom to three kids, with two separate ex-wives constantly in and out
of his life. It’s obviously an intriguing concept, as long as it’s not done in
a degrading way. The show does explain the quick marriage a bit by reasoning
that Kate is a romantic at heart, that won’t give up on love, but I’d be
curious to know how long the other two marriages worked.

I do have to say that while the
lighting and colouring for the series seems to be well done, the cinematography
seems a bit shaky. It doesn’t exactly look like it’s documentary-style filming,
but it’s not exactly well put together. Hopefully as the series progresses,
that kink is fixed.

The casting so far seems to be okay.
The two ex-wives are definitely well deserving of their roles, so far they’re
pretty good. I also like Akerman and Whitford in their roles, but I really want
to see a bit more depth into their relationship. It kind of felt like we were
just thrown into their lives, without any sort of set up, as if this wasn’t the
pilot episode, but in fact the second episode or a redone pilot. I really like
Meg as well, Kate’s best friend, I think she’s got some pizzazz, and a don’t
care kind of attitude. What I’m iffy on are the kids. While Bert is a terrible
name unless you’re a puppet, I do like him, the actor seems to be pretty well
done in his role. Warren seems okay, except for the distracting braces. It
looks like they’re fake, and if they’re real; they make it really hard to see
him as convincing. What I’m not so sure about is Hillary, I know they’ll be
changing the actress for the second episode, to age her down, but in this
episode, she wasn’t very convincing in her role, some of the lines and her
acting weren’t very well done. And also, how exactly do they expect to age her
down, and still include the whole vodka water bottle incident in the timeline
of the series. It doesn’t make sense if she’s younger, or Warren’s crush on her
friend. I just can’t see it as convincing. But that can be the problem with sitcoms;
they throw out storylines in continuity easily and without a second thought.

Overall this pilot was a mess. It
felt to me like it was sort of just thrown together. I get that a family this
size and complicated can be messy, but that doesn’t mean that story wise
everything has to be going on at once, and in your face about it. And the
voiceover was a little over the top too. It takes a certain type of talent to
be able to pull off the voiceover effortlessly, Kristen Bell in Veronica Mars or Gossip Girl, comes to mind, but I don’t think Akerman does it quite
well. There’s almost too much cheer in her voice, and it’s too loud, that
should really be dialed down. She’s a struggling new stepmom and wife, that should
show through. A lot of comedy could come from that, without needing to be so
over the top.

My rating: 3 out of 5.

No best lines for this episode, but I did really enjoy the
end scene with second wife looking for her hide-a-key.

That’s all for now, check back later for a review of Agents of Shield.